Coronavirus: quickly changing lives

Amid the outbreak of the now well-known coronavirus (COVID-19), many individuals have taken the news of this outbreak to a different level. People are buying food and other necessities in bulk in an attempt to prepare for a long span of being quarantined.

As new developments of the virus are discovered, many people have been severely impacted by where they are able to go and what they are able to do. Some people have been laid off or are non-paid leave until further notice.

Here are some people’s concerns:

Irene Dooley, 23, is a massage therapist who does chair massage events and home visits. “The majority of my events have been canceled for March and, at the ones that haven’t been canceled, people look at me like I’m going to give them the plague even though I’m the one coming into contact with everybody, so I should be the one afraid,” Dooley said. “The amount of house calls has dropped from an overflow to one or none per day.”

Kenya Berryhill, 44, said the coronavirus is affecting many different parts of her life.

“As a non-student, my business is not receiving orders. As a waitress, no one is coming out to enjoy themselves. With being a caretaker, I’m worried about the virus being everywhere and on everyone. And as a mom, I’m worried about my kids staying safe and unaffected in their lives, all while trying to get them to understand how to survive in a pandemic,” Berryhill said.

21-year-old Dominique Clark, a student at the University of Michigan, is having less of a job concern and more of an identity concern. “I’m having an identity crisis because I feel like I’m not a student anymore,” she said.

Mia McClendon, 22, simply said, “I am extremely grumpy and bored.”

Jermaine Riley, 24, has multiple jobs and is trying to deal with how he will find temporary employment.

“I have two jobs, both in food service, and as of 3 p.m. [March 17], both are closed or at least telling all non-essential personnel to stay home,” Riley said. “With no word as to how long this order will be in effect for, I’m scrambling to find temporary employment elsewhere to keep my life going and that’s hard even in itself because nowhere is hiring. The SOS is closed so I can’t take care of business with my license either, so I’m just stuck for the moment. I guess I’ll be home, catching up on video games and TV series until I get a call from the dozens of places I applied to. There’s nothing else I can really do.”

There are some people who do not believe the COVID-19 is affecting their lives at all, despite the disagreement from others around them. Montez McDonald, 22, said, “I think my spouse is overreacting and she believes me to be under reacting.”

The coronavirus is affecting many people in different ways and it looks like this is something that could last a while. But people are hopeful that it will go away sooner than later so that daily lives can resume the way they did before, or at least in a new normal.